If you are a long time reader of the blog, you know that we are big fans of Magic Lantern. Magic Lantern is a piece of software that you can install on Canon DSLRs to gain extra abilities that the original camera firmware did not have. They have added RAW video, more dynamic range, and about a million other little features like peaking, zebra lines, better audio control, built in timelapse and more. You can think about it as Jail Breaking a camera. To be honest, I think that Canon is secretly supporting ML.

We have seen Magic Lantern grow into (almost) every DSLR that Canon release and now it the turn of Canon’s new EOS 5D Mark IV. Here is the thing, the Magic Lantern forums are kinda of a geektalk place, so exciting news can slip by. It turns out that first signs of a 5D mkIV port were sent almost a month ago and were buried in the forums.

Magic Lantern Is one of the more powerful pieces of software ever released for Canon cameras. ML was released a good few years ago, but I am still getting quite a bit of mails asking us for more information about it.

Good! Because videographer Jake Coppinger just released a Magic Lantern for Dummies guide. It only covers the installation of ML onto a Canon DSLR and turning some of the features on, but it’s a great starting point if you’ve been wanting to play with ML.

What if Sony’s camera has so much more power internally than what they expose? We have seen Canon cameras getting a performance boost via hacked custom firmware – Magic Lantern, so the idea is not unthinkable.

Now, youtube user Nabil Fathi claims to have hacked the Sony A7S to record 4K internally, along with providing higher bitrate and better subsampling (HDMI 10bit 422). The message was attached to a video Nabil uploaded to Youtube:

For years Magic Lantern has been loved and trusted by many Canon users, and envied by Nikon users, thanks to the host of features the free software adds to the camera’s firmware.

A miserable April Fools’ joke, however, has many users irritated with the developers.

Turns out Magic Lantern though it would be funny to set the camera to have a 1 in 1000 chance of getting the blue screen of death, as long as the camera is not busy recording video. That’s right, ML intentionally crashed cameras.

The team a Magic Lantern has done wonders for the filmmakers industry (and arguably for Canon as well). They made RAW shooting on DSLRs available, implemented a scripting language, and even improved the exposure and dynamic range of the Canon EOS line.

But announcing that the ML team managed to run a 3.19 Linux Kernel on several EOS cameras has the potential to make a huge difference in how apps are developed for cameras. Apps for cameras? yes. This may become a reality.

According to Nikon Rumors, Nikon is about to drop a bomb into the firmware update process that stayed relatively similar throughout the 12 years or so since DSLRs became common. NR received a pastebin mail copy presumably from Nikon suggesting that Nikon is working on a new firmware download program which is “free to join“. The program suggests that Nikon shooters will be able to “download advanced firmware updates” that “add new functionality to their cameras“.

Joining the program is free to join for the first three years, but it is not clear what will happen afterwards, and once the following link becomes live, you will be able to join it here: http://imaging.nikon.com/advancing.

According to the mail the first batch of firmware update will be available for FX format cameras (Nikon D750, D810, D800, D800E, D610 and D600) and will include the following features:

A Canon 5D Mark III owner reported on the Magic Lantern forums that he is unable to install the popular software on his new camera, which he purchased several weeks ago.

According to the owner, his camera is running firmware version 1.3.3, which does not appear on Canon’s website and is not supported by Magic Lantern. It is also worth mentioning that the user states he was unable to downgrade the firmware to an earlier version that is supported by the third-party software.

Assuming this is true, is it simply an updated firmware version that hasn’t made its way to Canon’s support website and the Magic Lantern team, or is Canon aiming to cripple your camera?

Over at Magic Lantern forum we saw a happy announcement today. According to nikfreak, the Popular 70D just got “Boot Disk Enabled“. A boot disk for a DSLR is kind of similar to providing an autoexec.bat to a dos system via an external system. It enables a user (or a developer) to instruct the camera to run a dedicated set of commands.

This of course marks a big step for porting Magic Lantern over to the Canon 70D, which is in the market for over a year.

Enabling Magic lantern on the sub $1.000 Canon 70D is quite interesting. Aside from the low cost this camera boasts a 22MP sensor and a Dual Pixel CMOS AF which provides smooth focusing in live view and video modes which may be an awesome feature for videographers.

It’s not that Canon cameras takes bad video, but with Magic Lantern, the footage is unarguably better. The well known hack, is an open source project that is available as a third party add-on for certain Canon camera models. Filmmakers consider Magic Lantern essential and many still photographers utilize it as well. It delivers photographers full control over bitrate and framerate, while providing the option for custom bulb timers, bracketing for exposure, and more. It basically fills in all the gaps left by, what some may consider, underwhelming Canon firmware.

This is the first photo I’ve taken to try out the “tinfoil / aluminum foil background” method. Basically, you take a bunch of tinfoil, screw it up into a ball, then carefully unfold it to create a crinkled background. Hang it a good distance behind your subject, then point a flash at it. The crinkles in the foil will create a series of bright reflective points, which when thrown out of focus create a stunning sparkly background. [Read more…]

John Aldred is a portrait and animal photographer in Lancaster, England. you can see some of his work on his website, or find him on Facebook or Twitter.

Stefan Kohler is a conceptual photographer, specialized in mixing science, technology and photography. He is one of the founders of Kamerakind, based in Traunstein, Southern Germany. You can follow him on Facebook or on 500px.com

Liron Samuels is a wildlife and commercial photographer based in Israel.

When he isn't waking up at 4am to take photos of nature, he stays awake until 4am taking photos of the night skies or time lapses.